Majority
p. 123State vs. Anna Lewis, Alias Anna Bell. (May 28, 1924.) Pennewill, C. J., and Rice and Rodney, J. J., sitting. Court of Oyer and Terminer for New Castle County, May Term, 1924. No. 55,
Sylvester D. Townsend, Jr., Attorney-General, Clarence A. Southerland and Leonard G. Hagner, Deputy Attorneys-General, for the State.
Philip L. Garrett and Frank L. Speakman for defendant.
charged the jury, in part, as follows:
Officers of the law, such as sheriffs, constables, policemen and police matrons, while in the due and lawful execution of their office, are under the peculiar protection of the law, and the killing of such an officer, while in the due and lawful performance of the duties of his office, has been deemed and presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be murder of the second degree. State v. List, Houst. Cr. Cas. 133, 142, 143.